A joint closing ceremony for the 42 journalists held in Beijing, China on December 5, 2017.

The 2017 China-Africa Press Centre, CAPC fellowship programme ended in the Chinese capital, Beijing on December 5, 2017. There was a joint closing ceremony for journalists from 27 African countries and 15 others from South Asia and Southeast Asia. It took 10 months (February-December 2017) for the 42 media practitioners to experience China through lectures at Renmin University of China, Beijing, the Beijing International Chinese College, visits to cultural, tourist and sports grounds.

They also toured government ministries, agencies, covered major national and international events and visited 10 provinces and autonomous regions (Africans) to get firsthand knowledge on China. The fourth batch of African journalists (the programme began in 2014) for the first time in the history of the fellowship sat the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi, HSK or Chinese Proficiency Test Level 1, scoring 89 per cent. Their Asian counterparts had a 100 per cent score.

Speaking at the closing ceremony, Hu Zhengyue, Vice President of China Public Diplomacy Association, CPDA - organisers of the two fellowship programmes - said they facilitate understanding and friendship between Chinese, Africans and Asians. China, he noted, highly values its cooperation with Africa. "Chinese and Africans have been friends for long and their ties are characterised by win-win cooperation. Living and working in China for 10 months enabled you to understand the country's politics and policies. This information is useful in boosting win-win cooperation," Hu Zhengyue said.

Cameroon's representative and Sub-Editor for World News, Foreign Desk of Cameroon Tribune, Kimeng Hilton Ndukong, spoke on behalf of African colleagues. "Our visits to various public institutions in Beijing and trips to 10 provinces, autonomous regions and one municipality, enabled us to appreciate this great nation. Especially its diversity, grandeur and superlative achievements that make mockery of what obtains in most parts of the world. China is not only big in geographical size and population, but in almost everything it undertakes. This one of the lessons we learnt," he noted.

"The secret of China's meteoric rise to near all-round greatness today from a fragmented, poor, feuding and virtually starving nation under constant foreign hegemony some decades back, is understandable. It is simply attributable to the resolve, commitment, devotion, focus and stable policies of its leaders. And the hard work and untiring ingenuity of Chinese people," he underscored.

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